AFRICAN AMERICANS MORE LIKELY TO BE HOSPITALIZED FOR ASTHMA

AFRICAN AMERICANS MORE LIKELY TO BE HOSPITALIZED FOR ASTHMA
While asthma cases rise nationally at an alarming rate, the suffocating lung disease strikes hardest at African Americans. Blacks are much more likely to be hospitalized for it and die from it.Blacks and whites younger than age 65 are diagnosed with asthma at about the same rate. But blacks die from the disease three times the rate whites die from it, according to a 1997 national study. The study also found that blacks were hospitalized for asthma at a rate more than twice the U.S....

ASTHMA AT EPIDEMIC LEVELS IN U.S., INNER-CITY KIDS HIT HARDEST
Doug Kaufman ''had asthma, not any worse than any other kids in his neighborhood'' in San Diego, his mother, Debra, recalled. ''They all had inhalers.'' In fact, the Kaufmans figured Doug had outgrown his asthma at age 8. He even joined his high school track team. Then at 19, while working as a movie theater projectionist, Doug had an asthma attack. He collapsed, alone, a few feet from the...
Asthma growing fast among suburban children
Asthma inhalers line the counter in the nurse's office at Naperville Central High School. During the school year, more than 400 students could use them at any given time. That's the number of documented asthma cases in the records, said Judy Smith, the school nurse.Central isn't alone.Health experts say asthma - an inflammatory disease of the airways that obstructs breathing and causes episodes of uncontrollable wheezing - is rising at alarming...